Ridge: Fighting terror takes 'People plus technology'

Former Homeland Security Department Secretary Tom Ridge told a roomful of lawyers on Friday that the terrorist threat to the United States is "real and multi-generational," but it also is "something we can deal with" through advances in intelligence-gathering and technology.

"People plus technology is what will get us where we need to be to be able to protect ourselves," he said during an American Bar Association conference keynote. Ridge left his Cabinet-level post for the private sector in 2005 and now has his own consulting firm.

Since the federal government does not have infinite resources, security officials must focus on "weapons of mass effect" and on "terrorist attacks we've seen elsewhere," he said. "We also have to harness the capabilities and commitment of people at the state and local level -- first responders in particular."

While Homeland Security's relationship with states has improved since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Ridge said he does not believe "we're getting information down to the local levels" efficiently enough. "You can't secure the country from inside the Beltway."

Ridge told Technology Daily after his speech that despite "all the rhetoric and speeches since 9/11, we still do not have a national public-safety network," which would provide teams that arrive first on the scene of a disaster with tools that deliver voice, video and data among personnel across jurisdictions.

The FCC is "finally getting around to it" by setting aside a chunk of spectrum in the 700-megahertz band for public-safety communications, he said. The spectrum, which has been used by broadcasters now transitioning to digital signals, will be auctioned starting in late January.

"At the end of the day, the only way we can substantially enhance our security posture is by embedding more and better technology," he said, pointing to the importance of cutting-edge cargo and aviation security equipment.

"We'll also have to wrestle with biometrics and how they can be used more effectively" to verify when foreigners enter and leave the country, he said. Privacy and civil-liberties watchdogs have slammed recent proposals for implementing such a system.

A separate ABA session dug deeper into the legal implications of a national ID system -- with at least one pointed question posed by Robert Divine, former chief counsel for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. He asked screening-coordination chief Kathy Kraninger whether Homeland Security is pursuing a database "about as many people as can possibly be collected with biometrics with as much information as you can accumulate."

Kraninger said her agency "has a very vast mission" but takes steps to collect data appropriately and carefully. "Identity management is a really challenging, fascinating area," she said. "It all comes back to 'is the person who they say they are?'"